Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan,

And a quick, desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answer'd not with a caress, he died.—Byron.

IF

way.

LESSON 139.

THE PROBLEM OF CREATION.

F we look out upon the starry heavens by which we are surrounded, we find them diversified in every possible Our own mighty stellar system takes upon itself the form of a flat disc, which may be compared to a mighty ring breaking into two distinct branches, severed from each other, the interior with stars less densely populous than upon the exterior. But take the telescope and go beyond this; and here you find, coming out from the depths of space, universes of every possible shape and fashion; some of them assuming a globular form, and, when we apply the highest possible penetrating power of the telescope, breaking into ten thousand brilliant stars, all crushed and condensed into one luminous, bright, and magnificent centre.

2. But look yet farther. Away yonder, in the distance, you behold a faint, hazy, nebulous ring of light, the interior almost entirely dark, but the exterior ring-shaped, and exhibiting to the eye, under the most powerful telescope, the fact that it may be resolved entirely into stars, producing a universe somewhat analogous to the one we inhabit. Go yet deeper into space, and there you will behold another universe-voluminous scrolls of light, glittering with beauty, flashing with splendor, and sweeping a curve of most extraordinary form, and of most tre mendous outlines.

3. Thus we may pass from planet to planet, from suu

to sun, from system to system. We may reach beyond the limits of this mighty stellar cluster with which we are allied. We may find other island universes sweeping through space. The great unfinished problem still remains Whence came this universe? Have all these stars which glitter in the heavens been shining from all eternity? Has our globe been rolling around the sun for ceaseless ages? Whence, whence this magnificent architecture, whose architraves rise in splendor before us in every direction? Is it all the work of chance? I answer, No. It is not the work of chance.

4. Who shall reveal to us the true cosmogony of the universe by which we are surrounded? Is it the work of an Omnipotent Architect? If so, who is this August Being? Go with me to-night, in imagination, and stand with old Paul, the great Apostle, upon Mars' Hill, and there look around you as he did. Here rises that magnificent building, the Parthenon, sacred to Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom. There towers her colossal statue, rising in its majesty above the city of which she was the guardian — the first object to catch the rays of the rising, and the last to be kissed by the rays of the setting sun. There are the temples of all the gods; and there are the shrines of every divinity.

5. And yet I tell you these gods and these divinities, though created under the inspiring fire of poetic fancy and Greek imagination, never reared the stupendous structure by which we are surrounded. The Olympic Jove never built these heavens. The wisdom of Minerva never organized these magnificent systems. I say with St. Paul, "O Athenians, in all things I find you too superstitious; for in passing along your streets, I find an altar inscribed to the Unknown God-Him whom ye ignorantly worship; and this is the God I declare unto you - the God that made heaven and earth, who dwells not in temples made with hands."

6. No, here is the temple of our Divinity. Around us and above us rise sun and system, cluster and universe. And I doubt not that in every region of this vast empire of God, hymns of praise and anthems of glory are rising and reverberating from sun to sun and from system to system-heard by Omnipotence alone across immensity and through eternity!

O. M. Mitchell.

LESSON 140.

THE TRUE GREATNESS OF OUR COUNTRY.

BEHOLD

EHOLD here, then, the philosophy of all our studies on this grateful theme. We see only the rising of the sun of empire-only the fair seeds and beginnings of a great nation. Whether that glowing orb shall attain to a meridian height, or fall suddenly from its glorious sphere- whether those prolific seeds shall mature into autumnal ripeness, or shall perish yielding no harvest depends on God's will and providence. But God's will and providence operate not by casualty or caprice, but by fixed and revealed laws.

2. If we would secure the greatness set before us, we must find the way which those laws indicate, and keep within it. That way is new and all untried. We departed early we departed at the beginning - from the beaten track of national ambition. Our lot was cast in an age of revolution a revolution which was to bring all mankind from a state of servitude to the exercise of self-government - from under the tyranny of physical force to the gentle sway of opinion- from under subjection to matter to dominion over nature. It was ours to lead the way, to take up the cross of republicanism, and bear it before the nations, to fight its earliest battles, to enjoy its earliest triumphs, to illustrate its purifying

and elevating virtues, and by our courage and resolution, our moderation and our magnanimity, to cheer and sustain its future followers through the baptism of blood and the martyrdom of fire.

3. A mission so noble and benevolent demands a generous and self-denying enthusiasm. Our greatness is to be won by beneficence without ambition. We are in danger of losing that holy zeal. We are surrounded by temptations. Our dwellings become palaces, and our villages are transformed, as if by magic, into great cities. Fugitives from famine and oppression and the sword crowd our shores, and proclaim to us that we alone are free, and great, and happy. Ambition for martial fame and the lust of conquest have entered the warm, living, youthful heart of the republic. Our empire enlarges. The castles of enemies fall before our advancing armies; the gates of cities open to receive them. The continent and its islands seem ready to fall within our grasp, and more than even fabulous wealth opens under our feet. No public virtue can withstand, none ever encountered, such seductions as these. Our own virtue and moderation must be renewed and fortified under circumstances so new and peculiar.

4. Where shall we seek the influence adequate to a task so arduous as this? Shall we invoke the press and the desk? They only reflect the actual condition of the public morals, and cannot change them. Shall we resort to the executive authority? The time has passed when it could compose and modify the political elements around it. Shall we go to the senate? Conspiracies, seditions, and corruptions, in all free countries, have begun there. Where, then, shall we go, to find an agency that cau uphold and renovate declining public virtue? Where should we go, but there, where all republican virtue begins and must end-where the Promethean fire is

ever to be rekindled, until it shall finally expire — where motives are formed and passions disciplined? To the domestic fireside and humble school, where the American citizen is trained.- Seward.

A

LESSON 141.

ABOU BEN ADHEM.

BOU BEN ADHEM-(may his tribe increase!)— Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,

And saw, within the moonlight in his room,

Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,

An Angel writing in a book of gold.

2.

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said,

"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,
And, with a voice made all of sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the Angel.

3.

Abou spoke more low,

But cheerily still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one who loves his fellow-men."
The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night,
It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And, lo, Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!

30

Leigh Hunt.